The best of the inimitable Baroness Trumpington

The wit and wisdom of an extraordinary peer.

Baroness Trumpington, the Conservative peer rightly famous for sticking two fingers up at a fellow lord who called her "pretty old" during a debate has given an extensive interview to the Daily Telegraph, which allows us to appreciate fully the no-nonsense wit of this 89-year-old politician. In the course of her varied career, she was a land girl, a Bletchley Park codebreaker, Mayor of Cambridge, an agriculture minister, and now a Baroness. She is, quite simply, fab. Here's a few choice quotes:

On sticking two fingers up at Lord King of Bridgwater:

“It was entirely between him and me — I thought. I wasn’t conscious of there being television [cameras there]. I did that [she repeats the gesture with faux innocence] to his face. His family say he is famous now.”

On her suggestion that sheep should be used to detonate Falklands minefields:

“My point was that you can put a sheep out of its misery and eat it. You can’t do that to a man.”

On her attempted parliamentary campaign in the Isle of Ely:

“A godforsaken bit of the world. Driving from Cambridge, there isn’t even a pub on the way. I was Mrs Barker then and they called me Baker all through the interview. At the end, they said: 'Why do you think you’re not in Parliament already?’ I said: 'Because of selection committees like you,’ and went out and burst into tears.”

On getting older:

“You don’t give a damn about what you say. Other people’s opinions matter less — unless they’re medical.”